EMIR VIS­ITS THE IN­DIAN SUB­CON­TI­NENT

The Emir HH Sheikh Tamim bin Ha­mad Al Thani, as part of the many re­cent vis­its to coun­tries of strate­gic and trade im­por­tance, called on the lead­ers of Pak­istan, In­dia and Sri Lanka dur­ing his tour of the sub­con­ti­nent.

Ac­com­pa­nied by high-level del­e­ga­tion that com­prised min­is­ters, se­nior of­fi­cials and prom­i­nent busi­ness lead­ers, HH the Emir's visit to th­ese coun­tries fo­cused on ex­pand­ing bi­lat­eral and trade re­la­tions be­yond the en­ergy sec­tor. Dur­ing his stay in Pak­istan he met with Pres­i­dent Mam­noon Hus­sain and Prime Min­is­ter Nawaz Sharif who urged Qatar to al­low more Pak­istani work­ers ac­cess to em­ploy­ment op­por­tu­ni­ties in Qatar. Both sides also signed three mem­o­ran­dums of un­der­stand­ing (MoUs) aimed at

a in­creas­ing co­op­er­a­tion in ed­u­ca­tion and cul­ture. Con­tin­u­ing his tour, HH the Emir landed in New Delhi to meet with Pres­i­dent Pranab Mukher­jee, Prime Min­is­ter Naren­dra Modi and other se­nior min­is­ters from the In­dian gov­ern­ment. Qatar ex­pressed keen in­ter­est in in­vest­ing in a num­ber of “in­ter­est­ing ini­tia­tives” un­der­taken by In­dia and con­veyed trust in the coun­try's econ­omy. The Ex­ter­nal Af­fairs Min­istry re­port­edly high­lighted rail­ways, de­fence, in­fra­struc­ture, Smart Cities, re­tail and LNG ter­mi­nals as of­fer­ing “im­mense op­por­tu­ni­ties” for Qatari in­vest­ment, while Qatar Air­ways Chair­man HE Ak­bar Al Baker re­in­stated his in­ter­est in the do­mes­tic air­liner IndiGo. Six agree­ments, in the ar­eas of prisoner trans­fer, in­for­ma­tion & com­mu­ni­ca­tion, diplo­macy, news ex­change and ra­dio and tele­vi­sion, were inked dur­ing this visit. In the con­clud­ing leg of the tour, HH the Emir vis­ited Sri Lanka and met with the newly elected Pres­i­dent Maithri­pala Sirisena, and the two coun­tries signed nine MoUs cov­er­ing in­vest­ment, eco­nomic co­op­er­a­tion, tourism, ed­u­ca­tion and agri­cul­ture.